[WCUSP] Israeli starting war again by striking deep in Lebanon (WPost)

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Israel Strikes Deep in  Lebanon
Premier, U.N. Chief Condemn Attack as Violation of  Truce
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday,  August 20, 2006; A01
BEIRUT, Aug. 19 -- Helicopter-borne Israeli commandos raided a Hezbollah  
stronghold in the Bekaa Valley early Saturday, setting off a fierce gun battle.  
Lebanon called the attack a "flagrant violation" of a fragile six-day-old  
cease-fire and threatened to halt troop deployments in protest. 
Hezbollah, which battled the Israeli military for 33 days until the truce  
took hold Monday, said its fighters encountered the Israeli commandos in a field 
 near the town of Boudai, about 20 miles from the Syrian border. 
The Israeli military, confirming the raid, said its commandos carried out the 
 operation to interdict shipments of weapons and munitions to Hezbollah from  
Syria and Iran. The military said one Israeli officer was killed and two  
soldiers were wounded, one seriously. 
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told reporters in Beirut that the  
attack was a "flagrant violation" of the U.N. cease-fire and that he planned to  
lodge a complaint with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. 
Later Saturday, Annan said that he agreed the raid violated the cease-fire  
agreement and that he was "deeply concerned." 
Hezbollah issued no immediate reaction. But many Lebanese worried that the  
militant Shiite Muslim movement would retaliate, risking a chain of cease-fire  
violations that could rekindle the devastating war that drove nearly a fourth 
of  Lebanon's inhabitants from their homes and inflicted an estimated $3.6 
billion  in damage to bridges, roads and other infrastructure. 
In accepting the cease-fire, the Hezbollah leader, Hasan Nasrallah, warned  
that his militia reserved the right to attack Israelis as long as they remain 
on  Lebanese soil. At the same time, the Israeli military declared that it 
reserved  the right to respond to attacks and prevent weapons shipments to 
Hezbollah  guerrillas in the southern border hills until an international force was 
in  place. 
In practice, however, Hezbollah has held its fire even though an unknown  
number of Israeli troops remain in observation posts scattered across the rocky  
Lebanese hills just north of the border. Until Saturday, Israel also had  
refrained from attacks of any size on Hezbollah fighters in the border area or  on 
other Hezbollah installations farther north. The restraint by both sides had  
led to optimism in Beirut that the truce would hold and that rebuilding could 
 begin -- optimism that suddenly came under doubt. 
The Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, said the raid was not a  
violation of the cease-fire because it was in response to a violation by  
Hezbollah. "If the other side violates the cease-fire, then we are entitled to  
act," Regev said. 
"Had the Lebanese forces, augmented by international troops, been on the  
border crossing points with Syria the way they should have been, then our attack  
would have been superfluous," he added. "Hopefully, those international 
troops  will be there soon and then there will be no need for these kinds of 
actions. In  the interim, we cannot have an open border with arms coming from Syria 
to rearm  Hezbollah. The violation of the cease-fire is the arms transfer from 
Syria to  Lebanon." 
The Lebanese military, which stood aside during the war, has begun deploying  
along the border with Syria in northern and eastern Lebanon, in addition to 
its  deployment over the last three days in villages along the southern border 
with  Israel. But the frontier with Syria remains far from secured, officials  
acknowledged, and Israel is unlikely to relax its vigilance against Hezbollah 
 arms deliveries. 
The Lebanese defense minister, Elias Murr, said Lebanon would stop moving  
troops into the southern part of the country if the United Nations did not  
intervene, the Associated Press reported. 
"We have put the matter forward in a serious manner and the U.N. delegation  
was understanding of the seriousness of the situation," Murr said. "We are  
awaiting an answer." 
Israeli officials have said they are counting on the arrival of an  
international peacekeeping force to guarantee that the arms shipments stop.  About 50 
French military engineers arrived in southern Lebanon as a vanguard of  the 
European and other soldiers who, under the U.N. resolution, will be assigned  to 
reinforce the 2,000-member United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. 
But France and other European nations have expressed reluctance to commit  
troops to the operation until its U.N. mandate is clearly laid out. France,  
which was expected to provide several thousand troops, has limited its new  
contribution to 200. As a result, negotiations on assembling, transporting and  
tasking the additional peacekeepers could drag out in the days ahead, increasing  
the risk of cease-fire violations. 
Boudai, which lies in the foothills of the Mount Lebanon chain about 10 miles 
 northwest of Baalbek, has long been known as a Hezbollah stronghold. Local  
officials speculated that a senior Hezbollah leader, Sheik Mohammed Yazbek, 
may  have been the commandos' target. Other Lebanese suggested that the raid may 
have  been an attempt to recover two Israeli soldiers whose seizure by 
Hezbollah  commandos on July 12 precipitated the war. 
The Israeli military, however, specified that preventing the transport of  
weapons was its objective. "The goals were achieved in full," it added in a  
statement. 
Lebanese residents and security officials reported that Israeli planes were  
heard in the Bekaa Valley through the night, prompting fears of a raid. When  
they landed around 5 a.m., the Israeli special troops drove toward Boudai in 
two  vehicles transported into Lebanon by helicopters, they said. When 
challenged,  the Israelis identified themselves as Lebanese army troops, but the ploy 
failed  and Hezbollah fighters opened fire, they added. 
Hezbollah fighters found bloody bandages and syringes on the ground after the 
 battle, leading them to conclude that the Israelis suffered casualties,  
according to Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh, a Hezbollah ally. Hezbollah's  
al-Manar television reported a number of Israeli casualties but did not say  
whether they were killed or wounded. 
Lebanese security officials told the Reuters news agency that three Hezbollah 
 fighters were killed, but Hezbollah did not confirm the toll. 
Correspondent Doug Struck in Jerusalem contributed to this report. 
© 2006 The  Washington Post Company
 


 
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